The following report in Health Data Management prompted me to think how would Australia cope if 500,000 people were evacuated from part of one of our major cities.
Site Offers Rx Info for Wildfire Evacuees
(October 25, 2007) A new emergency prescription history program has been activated and updated to enable physicians to access information for residents displaced by the California wildfires.
The In Case of Emergency Prescription history service and secure Web portal were created earlier this year by several national pharmacy chains and electronic prescription network vendor SureScripts, Alexandria, Va. The program was designed to offer clinicians access to patient pharmacy records during an emergency, building on the KatrinaHealth.org Web site that was created to access electronic medical information for patients affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Clinicians using electronic prescribing software certified to work on the SureScripts network can access the drug data via the Rx History icon in the application. Physicians without certified prescribing software can register to access the information at icerx.org. Physicians must have several identifying pieces of information about a patient to access their medication history from the site.
Continue reading here
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/html/news/NewsStory.cfm?articleId=15951
It would seem that, given there is a record held at Medicare Australia(MA), of all the medications provided under the PBS scheme – which would cover the vast majority of important medications each Australian in taking a similar portal could be developed for Australian GPs who find themselves having to support displaced patients.
Given NEHTA is working with MA to deliver identifiers for both clinical providers and patients there seems to be little barrier to this becoming a reality with a little planning and work.
I wonder will anyone have the wit to ‘just get it done’. A lot of people might be very grateful if we have an event like Cyclone Tracy or Cyclone Larry again!
David.
1 comment:
I would like to reply to David's blog above. The daunting task of providing a digital prescription service that the "Government" would control is going to take years to perfect. The problem is that no one is considering who should have the Prescription information other then the GP's?? Answer...the people or patients. They need to be in control and educated about their prescriptions. We have the solution to this problem right here in Australia, www.mymedicalrecords.com.au, has the capability in an Emergency situation for you as the patient to get your medications filled anywhere anytime as long as you have access to the internet. And to go further, God forbid anyone having to go through what they endured in Southern California, if your house burns down and you lose vital documents, such as wills, trusts, medical records, mortgage papers, passports, insurance info, etc etc, they can be stored safely and securely right there on the website portal. This isn't a perfect solution but its alot better then what we have now. In addition, it will avoid any needless deaths due to not getting vital information fast enough. If you wait for the Government to get this done we will be waiting along time and too many people will suffer in the meantime. Don't wait until it’s too late.
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